I adore this episode, especially later on when the SNW crew go fan crazy over the NX-01 crew with those Boimler and Mariner grinning in the background. That and Boim's Section 31 fast walk
Lower Decks is an animated comedy. It's Star Trek in a new genre. They speak very fast, very loudly, and try to make every line at least a little funny, often sliding in obscure references to Trek lore. Think Futurama or Rick and Morty.
Strange New Worlds is a modern take on classic Star Trek, which is much more buttoned-up. It's true to the more serious tone of previous live-action Trek series.
This is from the crossover episode, where two Lower Decks characters appeared in Strange New Worlds. The contrast between them and the Enterprise crew was a riot, and IMHO they didn't overdo it; they got it just right. It's everything I could have hoped for as a fan of both of these two very different series.
Lower Decks is certainly fast, loud and in-your-face funny. But what I was completely not expecting is for it to be so respectful and adoring of what came before in the franchise. I thought originally, ah yeah one of those “fast edgy animated comedies”, it surely would be derisive and treat Trek like a joke itself, but actually, no it does not. It’s a comedy set in the Trek universe, it’s not a comedy where Trek is the punchline.
Weeell, SNW is only on season 2 and we've already had an animated crossover, a musical episode, two characters doing Star Trek mythbusters, a double date sitcom setup with Spock and a renfair episode.
SNW isn't a self-parody, but it's certainly aiming for TOS' blend of camp and speculative sci-fi more than the "serious tone" of 90s Trek, if that's how we want to describe it.
it's not really representative of the tone of SNW. The screenshots are from an episode where two characters from Lower Decks (the animated series) end up in the live-action SNW universe.
this is a great episode! when she comes through the portal. I always think "oh gawd, here we go". the characters are played flawlessly and really bring the shows together in a way that few are able to achieve.
To me I feel like Ethan peck is actually very good at acting as Spock, but the writing is extremely unspock like and so it doesn’t feel right. Kirk’s writing also seems more like the mythos of Kirk remembered as by the 24th century than the actual buttoned up officer of the 23rd.
I know boimler's hair is purple in lower decks, but I didn't expect it to be purple in live action for some reason and I couldn't stop thinking about how weird it was whenever he was on screen. Like, the Simpsons have yellow skin while animated but if they were real life people it wouldn't be neon yellow. Am I crazy?